Written by David Mathis from DesiringGod.org

Halloween is not too haunted for true saints. This is no night for God’s “holy ones” to run and hide, but rise up and revel in the power of our sovereign Christ. This is not the devil’s day, but ours. No concessions, no treaties, no retreat. No call to fear, but an invitation to feast.

Originally “All Hallows’ Eve” may have been an annual commemoration of the seemingly super-holy, the Roman “saints” (Latin hallows, “holy ones”). But under God’s kind providence, a monk named Martin came to our rescue when he went trick-or-treating on October 31, 1517, at the church door in Wittenberg. Eventually Luther labored with a horde of others to liberate God’s people from a host of medieval misconceptions – including the assumption that only some, not all, of Christ’s people are “saints” (Romans 1:7;1 Corinthians 1:2; and 2 Corinthians 1:1).

Claiming All Hallows’ Eve truly belongs to believers does not mean we celebrate death or darkness. Far from it. We celebrate our Savior’s victory over death and over everything demonic. We mark Christ’s triumph, through death, over sin and Satan. “Through death he . . . destroy[ed] the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).

As Christians, with open Bibles, we have a theology tall enough and thick enough for every ounce of Halloween, and every other day of the year. This is not a night to moan and fret, but to rejoice with confident smiles and treats in hand. And with open ears because the harvest festival is a ripe opportunity to rehearse precious truths — or teach them for the first time — about the undaunted dominion of Christ and what it means for us as his people.

So, Christian neighbors, join me in leading our homes and churches out of fear and into joy. The harvest is great, and Halloween is a striking foil — for teaching our kids, and reminding ourselves — of who we are in Christ.  Read more…

Purchase your books from our online shopping cart,
Email orders@christianbooks.co.za or
Visit one of our stores

By Author & Blogger Tim Challies

It happens to all of us at one time or another. There are times when we wake up eager to get into God’s Word, when our times in the Bible are an absolute joy and thrill. We hope, we wish, we pray that these times will never end. But they do. At times we wake up with no desire to open the Word. We find to our sorrow that the joy and thrill have given way to cold duty. I know this all too well. With September here and fall and winter laid out before us, perhaps this is the time to spark that lukewarm devotional life. Here are a few suggestions.

Ditch Your Plan

Bible-reading plans can be a tremendous aid in telling us what to read each day and in keeping us on track in actually reading it. The desire to finish the plan combined with the sense of personal failure that comes with abandoning it can be enough to keep us going. Yet often we fall behind in those plans and the discouragement of being a day, then a week, then a month behind paralyzes us into inaction. If that’s the case for you, why don’t you ditch your plan? Ditch it without shame, without that sense of failure, and do something different instead. Why not begin to read a Psalm a day, or a chapter of one of the gospels? Find a list of 100 key Scripture passages and focus on them. Pick a short book like Colossians or Titus and read it every day for a month. What and how much you read matters a lot less than the simple fact that you read something and meditate on it.

Start a Plan

Sometimes a plan is the problem and sometimes a plan is the solution. If your reading is infrequent and unstructured, why don’t you think about finding and following a plan? While we typically think of annual plans that begin in January, there are also great plans that run for weeks or months. A three- or four-month plan may be just the thing to get you through to the end of the year. If Bible-reading is an especially big struggle for you, try a 5-day-per-week plan that allows you a couple of catch-up days each week. Bible.com can get you started with a whole list of options. The ReadingPlan app has been my companion all year long and I’ve grown to love it!

 Read more..

Purchase your devotional material from our online shopping cart,
Email orders@christianbooks.co.za or
Visit one of our stores

Written by John Bloom from DesiringGod.org

One of the most merciful gifts God can give us is a deep, keen awareness of our dependence on him for everything.

Living the Christian life relies on our full dependence upon the grace of God we receive through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said it this way:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Every professing Christian agrees we must abide in Christ. But our agreement is only important to the degree we feel it to be true. The less we feel our need for Christ, the less we will abide in him.

If We Don’t Feel Hungry, We Won’t Eat

I say “feel” because in English this gets closer to the kind of knowledge of our need for Jesus he means us to have. It’s not merely cerebral but experiential knowledge, like knowing we need food.

But it’s one thing to know we need nutrients for our body when we haven’t eaten in 24 hours; it’s another thing to know we need nutrients for our body after we’ve just washed down a bag of potato chips with a 32 oz. soda. We’re not likely to eat food we really need after sating our appetite with junk. If we don’t feel hungry, we won’t eat, especially the kind of food we most need.

The same thing is true of spiritual nutrition. If we don’t feel hunger for God because we’ve been eating spiritual junk, we are not likely to want to eat the food we need most — the food from the Vine.

Read More…

Purchase books for Spiritual Growth from our online shopping cart,
Email orders@christianbooks.co.za or
Visit one of our stores

Written by Jon Bloom from desiringGod.org

Why do we fear others’ disapproval so much? We all experience this fear, and most of us don’t want to admit how serious its tyranny can be. The Bible calls this the “fear of man”, and it can weave a web of ambiguity around issues that are biblically clear. The fear of man can immobilize us when we should take action, and gag us into silence when we should speak. It feels powerful, but its power is deceptive.

That’s why the Bible tells us, “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe” (Proverbs 29:25). The Hebrew word here for “snare” refers to traps hunters used to catch animals or birds. Snares are dangerous. If we get caught, we must do whatever it takes to free ourselves. God has the power to free us and he wants us living in the safe freedom of trusting him. But he frees us not by removing our fear of disapproval, but transferring it to the right place. And typically, he frees us by helping us face our false fears so that they lose their power over us.

God’s Design in the Fear of Disapproval
It’s important we understand why our desire for approval and fear of disapproval is so strong.

Due to our sin, weaknesses, and perhaps traumatic past experiences, we might assume these things are merely consequences of the fall. But at the core, they’re not. God actually designed us to be motivated by these emotionally powerful forces, for they uniquely reveal what we love.

Each of us instinctively knows, as creatures, that who we are and what we’re worth are not things we define for ourselves. We didn’t create ourselves. We didn’t choose our DNA, intellectual and physical powers, families, cultures, early education, time periods, or most other major influences. We are not autonomous but contingent creatures.

Read more…

Purchase your books from our online shopping cart,
Email orders@christianbooks.co.za or
Visit one of our stores

By  Author & Blogger Tim Challies

Sometimes it’s better to show than to tell. Sometimes it’s more effective to rely on illustration than description. Maybe this is especially the case when we are distressed, ashamed, or sorrowful, when emotions threaten to displace reason. In those moments, God comforts us not only with descriptions of what he does with our sin, but also with vivid illustrations. Are you distressed by what you’ve done? Do you hear whispers that you have sinned beyond God’s desire or ability to forgive? Let these illustrations comfort you. Listen to – no, see! – all that God does with your sin.

God throws your sin into the sea (Micah 7:19). Here is a clear reference to the Exodus when God rescued his people by drowning Pharaoh and his army in the sea. John MacKay says, “The Egyptians were prevented from catching up with the fleeing Israelites and reversing their deliverance. The freedom of the people of God will not be marred by some consequence of their past sin catching up with them to spoil their delight in the provision God has made for them.” Not a single Egyptian soldier crawled onto the bank to continue to torment Israel. Not a single one of your sins will continue to torment your soul.

God treads your sin underfoot (Micah 7:19). God doesn’t only drown your sins in the sea, but he also stomps them under his feet. Richard Phillips explains the illustration this way: “God responds to our sins the way a protective parent destroys a snake in the children’s playground.” He throws it to the ground, stomps on it, reduces it to nothing. He grinds it underfoot until it is dead and gone.

Your sin has been so thoroughly dealt with that it is as if God tossed it behind him where he can no longer see it.

Purchase Tim Challies books from our online shopping cart,
Email orders@christianbooks.co.za or
Visit one of our stores

Frank Retief was pastor at St James Church Cape Town for 31 years, having planted the church in 1968 with his wife Beulah.  He became the Presiding Bishop of the Church of England in South Africa until he retired in 2010.  Frank remains active in ministry through preaching, teaching, pastoral work & writing, and has authored a number of books.

Mystery of the Son

Luke 10 v 22. “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

The Son of God has within Himself everything that we sinners need for our salvation. He is endowed by the Spirit of God. That means He has the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of God.

He has all these qualities and more, entrusted to Him by his Father so that He could become our mediator. He is the great Fountain out of which flows the Father’s grace and love to needy sinners. His riches are inexhaustible. He is so great that only the Father can truly know Him. Only God can penetrate to the essence of the being of Christ.  Likewise, so great is the Father that no one but the Son can know who He is. These are great mysteries.

But consider this, when Jesus was on earth none of these things were discerned by the disciples. It is true they caught glimpses of his uniqueness from time to time, but of His true greatness they knew very little. Imagine you were a listener to Jesus’ conversation when he uttered the words printed above. If you were Jewish you would be astounded that such claims could come from the mouth of a human being. If you were not a Jew but a Gentile you would shrug it off as the ramblings of a deluded person. But what if these words are true?

In that case the one person who truly knows God, came to earth and lived among us. Would it not make sense to hear him out and make a decision based on fact and not emotion?  But this is exactly what the people of Jesus’ day did not do. They argued with him at every point.

But at the end of the day, God is the One who opens the eyes of those who believe and they are saved. Why does God not open everybody’s eyes?  We do not know.  The important question is are your eyes opened, do you believe and do you live accordingly?

Purchase your books from our online shopping cart,
Email orders@christianbooks.co.za or
Visit one of our stores

By Trevor Bradley                                  Picture provided courtesy of www.trailblazer.co.za

However tall the mountain looms.  As the song says “through it all, He is Lord… Lord of all”.  Why then, I ask myself, is my heart so prone to doubt?  Why do I allow him, the deceiver/liar, such a foothold?  Why do I land up in the space of fear, which is driven by doubt, only to have Him come yet again, and again, and yet again, to speak and bring peace, to my troubled, unbelieving heart?  Why do i forget His blessings and interventions, His amazing miracles on my behalf so easily?  

Read Mark 6 vs 32-52.  Firstly 5000 people are fed out of a basket containing but 5 loaves and 2 fish.  Then right after that, a storm that threatens to take the lives of the disciples, were it not for the intervention of the Lord.  Yet as we further proceed through the Gospels, we see not too far down the road, when a bunch of soldiers arrest Jesus, those very witnesses run.

I don’t want to dwell on lack of faith here.  Rather what I want to say is this: No matter if it is a storm or if it be a situation of “supply”, He will come through for you, to settle or provide.  He will be there, even if your heart is in the place where at first you cry ” is that you LORD?” I read in 2 Timothy 2 vs 13 where He says this (paraphrased for effect)

“If we have little or no faith, yet He will remain faithful – for He cannot deny who He is and what He has promised”.

So today, WHATEVER the mountain that stands before you, know this, as that song goes: ” Saviour, He can move the mountains, My God is Mighty to save… He is mighty to save”.

Purchase your books from our online shopping cart,
Email orders@christianbooks.co.za or
Visit one of our stores

Written by Josh Squires from DesiringGod.org

“Put the screens away!”

If you were a fly on the wall in my family, you would hear that sentence, again and again. And it only gets worse in the summer. Because of the lack of a school routine, boredom turns to binge-watching.

I feel like a class-A hypocrite writing an article on this topic, but we’re not the only ones struggling to get a handle on it, either. Over and over it comes up in counseling sessions, phone calls, messages, and discrete conversations in the halls of the church. What does it mean to rightly parent a child of the “on-demand” generation?

Do we have to choose between the luddite lifestyle of banning technology altogether, or is there a way to make “screen use” a shepherding opportunity?

The New Neighborhood

Everyone remembers the constant cries of “I’m bored!” It’s as much a part of summer as lemonade, barbeques, and beach trips. In times past, however, there were social systems that worked to help alleviate boredom. They were called your neighbors.

Neighborhoods were alive with children playing pick-up basketball, or riding their bikes, or doing anything they could to fight the specter of boredom together. It wasn’t a perfect system by any means, but it brought kids of various ages and abilities together to battle a common enemy.

These days, it seems impromptu play in neighborhoods has all but disappeared. The result is that a child’s entertainment and play needs — and yes these are needs for a child — fall to the parent rather than being distributed across a neighborhood of resources.

Eventually, parents get burnt out or their paychecks run out, so part of the easy solution is to park the child in front of a screen. Instantly, children are both contained and entertained. It’s almost too easy. And our hearts loves easy.

Our Appetite for Easy Pleasure

Whatever the sociological causes for increased media time, there’s always a heart issue at play. Between chapters 6–26, Proverbs addresses the “sluggard” fourteen times. In fact, laziness is one of the primary foils in the wisdom literature.

The human heart wants as much pleasure as it can get for the least amount of work it has to put into it. It’s called the “pleasure principle.” When our children pick up a screen, the pleasure principle starts paying in spades.

It pays off for them because they do not have to do the hard work of socializing with others, or learning to share, compromise, and play by the rules. Their world is their own, and it goes wherever Netflix, Amazon, or YouTube will take them. And it pays off for us too. We do not have to worry about the constant nag for entertainment, the coordination of schedules and events, or the disorder of a well played-in room.

Constantly, our sin sick world invites us to indulge our sin sick heart. But the good news is that the power of the ministry of the word enables us to reign in our appetites for ease (Hebrews 12:1).
Read More…

Purchase your parenting books from our online shopping cart,
Email orders@christianbooks.co.za or
Visit one of our stores

Author & Blogger Tim Challies explains to us what it means to work with a good will.

Paul began by saying in Ephesians that Christians are to work and followed that by saying Christians are to ensure that they always complete their work with a view to pleasing God.

But even that isn’t enough. Paul says that you are to complete your work (“render your service”) with a good will. That is quite the command because it indicates that not only does God expect you to do good work, but he expects you to have to have a good attitude while you do it. And remember that in this letter he is not writing to executives in corner offices but slaves who draw no salary and receive no benefits!

What does it mean to work with a good will? It means that if you are working for a business, you should want that business to succeed and do everything you can to make that happen. You should even want your manager or your boss to succeed and do your utmost to help them forward. Wanting the company to succeed means you want the people around you to succeed, even if they achieve greater levels of success than you do. This may be the most unusual and godly character trait in the work-a-day world—a person who genuinely wants his peers to succeed. But what a mark of a person who has been transformed by the gospel! This is dying to self, this is working as unto the Lord instead of working unto men. Can you rejoice with those who rejoice, even if the person rejoicing is the one who got the promotion you wanted and maybe the promotion you deserved?

No matter who you are or what you do, you’ve got something to learn here. Your work, every bit of it, is to be done as unto the Lord. You don’t work ultimately to please men but to please God. God is your ultimate boss and he wants your work to be a reflection of your relationship with him. How will you work for him? Will you do shoddy work? Will you do just enough? Will you cut corners and see how much you can get away with? Or will your gratitude for all he has done compel you to joyfully give your best work every day?

At this point Paul has told you to do your work and to do your work in such a way that you please God. He has one thing left to say: Wait for payday.  Read More…

Purchase your books from our online shopping cart,
Email orders@christianbooks.co.za or
Visit one of our stores

Written by Marshall Segal with Desiring God

We tend to think our dreams were too big when we were young, say when we were six, and too small as we get older. But maybe our dreams never reach high enough.

What is God’s dream for our lives? What are the highest peaks he’s put out in front of each of us? “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). In absolutely everything we do — even down to how we drink that Gatorade after we work out or sip our favorite Starbucks — we do it for the glory of God. In front of the mountain of purpose and happiness hidden for us in his glory, every other dream and ambition begins to look pale and stale.

What does it mean to live for glory like that? Paul goes on to say that he seeks “to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved” (1 Corinthians 10:33). We drink and eat, work and play, love and serve in ways that strive to win the world for Jesus. Whatever we do, we do it to say something about what God has done for us and about how much he and his love mean to us. We do it for his glory, and not our own.  Read more here.

Purchase your books from our online shopping cart,
Email orders@christianbooks.co.za or
Visit one of our stores

Frank Retief was pastor at St James Church Cape Town for 31 years, having planted the church in 1968 with his wife Beulah.  He became the Presiding Bishop of the Church of England in South Africa until he retired in 2010.  Frank remains active in ministry through preaching, teaching, pastoral work & writing, and has authored a number of books.

Blessed Privileges:

Luke 10 vs 23,24. “Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

At this point Jesus is still speaking not to the twelve disciples, but to the larger group of people he had sent out on a preaching mission. Here Jesus explains the privilege that belongs to these people.

There were devout Kings of the Old Testament and fiery prophets who served the Lord zealously, but none of them, while on earth, had ever seen the incarnate Christ. None of them heard his words or witnessed his miracles. “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see”. These Old Testament saints wanted to see what these disciples were seeing. They would have loved to be present when the true Messiah finally arrived and taught the people. But it was not given to them to see it – except by faith. That means they knew He was coming and they rejoiced in that fact.

But this raises the tremendous responsibility that rests on all of us today who now live in the full light of the New Testament revelation. We now have the whole bible. Having a bible in your home is an awesome responsibility. You have the written revelation of God. If you do not read it, if you remain unsaved, that very bible that lies next to your bed will witness against you on the Day of Judgement.

It is true of course that there is much in the bible that is hard to understand, which is why we need the local church, pastoral teachers, and the fellowship of Christians so that we can know and understand the truth. But even so there is much in the bible which is self-evident and easily understandable, if we would only take the trouble to read it properly and prayerfully.

But all these additional privileges we have – churches, pastors, teachers, new translations, bible study groups and a myriad of other things God has given us to assist us to understand his word, only serves to increase our responsibility before him.

Do you use the opportunities God has given you? Do you make excuses not to attend Bible Studies? Does your life simply bumble along spiritually?  Maybe the time is now for us to stop, consider our privileges and get our lives in order.

Purchase your books from our online shopping cart,
Email orders@christianbooks.co.za or
Visit one of our stores

Written by Kevin Ashwe
(Part One)

If you have sensed God’s call to a hostile area or you’re already working in one, you need not worry. The ideas shared here will go a long way to help. God who called you to such a location knows about the hostility there and as a loving father he has gone ahead of you and made adequate preparation for you. You need not worry.

Evangelism is a task appointed to all God’s people everywhere. It is the task of communicating the message from the creator to rebel mankind. The message begins with information and ends with an invitation. The information concerns God’s work of making His son a saviour for sinners. The invitation is God’s summons to mankind generally to come to the saviour and find life.

The evangelism mandate demands that the gospel message reaches out to every creature in whatever geographic location. Whether a receptive or hostile environment to the Gospel. Receptivity of the Gospel is not the same from one location to the other. The efforts of the church in some times more concentrated in areas where things are easy, thereby neglecting environments perceived to be hostile to the Gospel and sometimes believers as well. The necessity of taking the Gospel to all irrespective of what they are, requires that plans are adequately made to effectively evangelise the seemingly difficult and hostile places.

There are various factors that contribute to the resistance of the Gospel in hostile environments. Interestingly, what brings resistance, non-receptivity and hostility in one place may be a positive factor to the Gospel in another area. One thing that is sure is that with God, faith in our heart, love for those perishing souls, perseverance and right strategy, we can penetrate and win over any hostile environment or community anywhere in the world.

What Makes an Area Hostile

Hostile environments area areas that are resistant to the Gospel of Christ. One or several of the underlisted points may make an area difficult or hostile to the Gospel.

• Strong commitment to occultism.
• Belief and practice of animeson and traditional religion.
• The presence of intimidating Islamic beliefs and conducts.
• Inclination to customary ideas and superstitions.
• Places where Christianity has been over thrown.
• Presence of local legislation against evangelism.

The bottom line of all these however, is the overall agenda of satan. Satan is certainly behind all persecution and efforts to keep the message of Jesus Christ from reaching the hearts of people and the core of their culture. We could even say that opposition to the Gospel is his major role and goal. The words of 1Cor. 4:4 refers to a major work of satan when it said that, “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Furthermore, we should know that some areas and territories were covenanted to satan many years ago. Such covenants may still be active, potent and effective. The ultimate effect and result is a strong intimidating resistance to the Gospel.

Each time the Church, the body of Jesus Christ, is seeking to bring in the kingdom, she inevitably will be confronted by the opposing kingdoms or spirits, gods, principalities, powers and thrones. These are employed to blind, bind and buffet the inhabitants.

One of the major issues therefore in evangelizing hostile environments is how to tackle the territorial spirits that govern the area. Hostile environments presents peculiar problems that are multifaceted, and sometimes deeply rooted in their historical past. When these are properly understood, effective strategies aimed at evangelizing them can be prayerfully planned and worked upon.

Part two will be posted next week.

Purchase your books from our online shopping cart,
Email orders@christianbooks.co.za or
Visit one of our stores